<3 The U-Store
Fun? Yes. Disease-filled? Also yes.
Big news today out of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: school officials are saying that they’ve linked several cases of H1N1 to people sharing cups during “beer pong” (c’mon, rest of the world! It’s only beer pong if you play with ping pong paddles).
It’s common sense – you share cups, you get sick. So bring your own cups. Or steal some from behind the tap when no one’s looking.
Here’s the late, great Michael Conrad with a reminder:
There have been 260 cases of influenza-like illnesses on campus since the beginning of September, UHS executive director John Kolligian reported this afternoon at the CPUC (Council for the Princeton University Community) meeting.
While the University does not test all reported flu cases for H1N1, they are assuming–and treating as if–they are. Kolligian said campus figures are roughly in line with national and state trends.
Vaccines for H1N1 are scheduled to arrive in small batches in the next few weeks. Kolligian also said the seasonal flu vaccines that were administered a couple weeks ago in Frist do not protect against H1N1.
(source: dbtechno.com)
Princeton University opened the school year with Flu Fest, an annual opportunity for students, faculty and staff members to receive free vaccinations for the seasonal flu.
The clinic, usually set later in the year, was moved up to Wednesday and Thursday this week, in keeping with CDC guidelines to vaccinate the population for the seasonal flu as soon as possible, said university spokeswoman Emily Aronson.
Between Sept. 5 and 11, a total of 6,432 new flu-like illnesses were reported on college campuses, according to the American College Health Association, which has been collecting data about the spread of the H1N1 flu from 253 universities, including Princeton.
For the whole story, visit Centraljersey.com.
Our favorite swine flu image.
Sixteen new cases of flu-like illness were identified by UHS within a 24 hour period between Monday and Tuesday, University spokeswoman Emily Aronson said this afternoon. This brings the total number of cases at the University since August 30 to 80. These cases have generally been mild, Aronson said.
“These figures are consistent with what we’ve been told that other colleges have experienced once students return to campus,” Aronson said. “Classes did not start here until last week on Sept. 1, so it was expected that we would experience an increase in flu-like illness once students returned to campus after the summer.”
But on to more important matters:
If you’re wondering what’s in those swine flu kits: “face masks, temperature dots (to allow students to take their own temperature), hand sanitizer, facial tissues, tea, soup mix, and a copy of a UHS instructional flier…” Aronson said.
We can’t be the only ones who think temperature dots sound really fun. What are they? A quick Google search turns up chemical dot thermometers. We are thinking more…stickers for your forehead.
(source:thisislondon.co.uk)
If you’re fearing the swine, don’t forget to get your free seasonal flu shot at the University’s Flu Fest clinic, which takes place September 23-24 and October 12.
Health authorities have said that they’re no longer doing regular lab tests to determine if someone has H1N1 flu, so anyone with flu-like symptoms will be asked to follow the same guidelines, University spokesperson Emily Aronson said.
“We’ve always offered the flu clinic, but the date is earlier this year,” Aronson said. “That’s part of the CDC guidance –they’re encouraging any organization that provides flu shots to do so as early as possible so that the population receives the vaccination for seasonal flu.”
After the jump, what happens when you start feeling swiney –and what to do when your roommate gets sick.
(image source: flickr.com)
After the Princeton Regional Schools District sent out a letter about swine flu, a worried parent “panicked” and sent out an e-mail that sent parents all across this quaint little hamlet of Princeton scurrying to pull their children out of class.
From the Trenton Times:
The parent allegedly became worried about the potential for swine flu at Princeton High School and circulated an e-mail saying “swine flu has reached the high school.” School officials said the rumor was false.
Princeton’s OK! We’re all OK! It’s just a rumor!
Anyway, we like to keep things in perspective. The pandemic alert is only at Level 5 –we’ve still got one more to go before swine flu wipes us out.
This is, hilariously, what you get when you Google "whooping cough." (image source: abcnews.com)
Thanks, all of you who didn’t get the Tdap booster before coming to college.
“When we actually look at our student records, (we) found that not all of our students received the booster,” Cliatt said.
The Times of Trenton reports that nine students at Princeton — not four — have been diagnosed with whooping cough so far.
University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt told the Times that five new cases of whooping cough were confirmed this weekend.
Besides the e-mails telling coughers to avoid circultaing in public Princeton also notified local health officials, the article said. If this were 1918, the entire school might be isolating itself, instead.
In the mean time, Princeton (and the rest of the student body) wants you to sprint to McCosh if you are feeling like you’ve got a case of swine flu. The rest of the country would appreciate it as well. We stopped by the Duane Reade in Penn Station on Monday –the entire shelf of hand sanitizers was almost gone.
